Cake Pans for crafting great cakes

Written by Curtis Miller

Famous bakers and serious home cooks have always known to make a perfect cake always use cake pans made exactly for that job. Just as gourmet chefs require certain tools for proper cooking, cake pans are way to go for successful cake baking. There are many designs to choose from and one is just right for you.

Choices for cake pans include round and square. Round pans are most common choice for layer cakes. Once these were covered with flat rims, protecting them from being flavored during wood-fired baking. They have not changed in design much since renaissance. Round baking pans will uniformly cook batter and prevent a too thick crust. Also straight sides promote uniform rising.

Square cake pans are used for many recipes in kitchen including brownies and cakes. Nice to have in a persons baking supplies. They sometimes are made out of silicone. Silicone bakeware is non-stick and flexible, very easy to work with.

Colombian Coffee

Written by Randy Wilson

Grown at high altitudes and tended with painstaking care in shade of banana and rubber trees, Colombian coffee is among best in world, rich, full-bodied, and perfectly balanced. Coffea Arabica L., more commonly known as Arabica bean, prefers higher altitudes and drier climates than its cousin, lower quality Robusta bean (C. Robusta). Therefore, arid mountains and well-drained, rich volcanic soil of Colombia provide ideal conditions for growing high quality coffee.

Colombian coffee is grown in two main regions, central region around Medellin, Armenia and Manizales, known as MAM to aficionados, and eastern, more mountainous region near Bogotá and Bucaramanga. MAM varietals are known for their heavy body, rich flavor and fine, balanced acidity while mountain grown eastern beans produce an even richer, heavier, less acidic coffee. The finest Colombian coffee comes from this region.

It is not known for sure when coffee first reached Colombia but many historians believe it to be around same time Jesuit priests first began arriving from Europe in mid 16th century. The first exports of Colombian coffee began in 1835 when around 2500 bags were exported to U.S. By 1875 170,000 bags were leaving country bound for U.S. and Europe. The exports grew exponentially over next hundred years or so and peaked in 1992 at around 17 million bags. Today, Colombian coffee exports are around 10 million bags per year.